


Among the ashes

by Ruler_of_Nope_Island



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, Implied Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 11:36:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13763283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruler_of_Nope_Island/pseuds/Ruler_of_Nope_Island
Summary: Jude/Agnes for pairing week!





	Among the ashes

You slink around the city. Day or night, doesn’t matter. You don’t need sleep so you can walk forever, although you do need to rest. But the burning doesn’t let you.

Fucking Archivist.

He dragged your story out of you like someone dragging a corpse out of a river. Dredged it all up again, all of those things you’d kept inside; the memory of Agnes that was so holy to you, something you kept near what might pass for a soul. Now it’s out there in the open, dead and pinned like a butterfly on a piece of cardboard. Anyone could play that shitty tape recorder and hear it, repeated back. Of course, Orsinov may be right - the time for recording and watching will soon be over. Agnes will be yours again. 

And he had to mention Jack Barnabas, didn’t he? The fuck who tried to kiss Agnes, your Agnes, just as you were about to lose her forever. His face melted off right afterwards but that wasn’t enough of a punishment. You had stepped forward, intending to really make him hurt but a single glance from Agnes made you step right back again. It was only ever Agnes who could remind you of your place in the scheme of things. But he ruined it. That perfect ending you should have had was instead a moment of quiet reproach. You saw her crying a little. 

This is what these people do, of course. Agnes who was never human, was seduced by the idea of peaceful humanity; a tedious life, working a job, having a partner, dying a quiet death. You who could still remember being human and its dreary pointlessness. You tried to make her see what a blessing her existence was. But as the years went on she listened to you less and less.

You clung to her, of course; the Devastation loves those that love what destroys them. That’s a redundancy. You hate those. You think about the Archivist and his glib little comments and his whimpering and the smell of his burning flesh. Ceaseless Watchers will not be needed and no be wanted. 

You stare at a pair of houses in a suburban cul-de-sac. Flip a coin. Decide to burn them both down. You sit in a bus stop and listen to the sweet song of fire engines and smell the smoke. There’s a waft of burning flesh, underneath it all. It should make you feel better but it just makes you miss Agnes so you get up and keep walking. 

Dawn comes; red streaks across a city skyline. The streets are filled with busy people rushing to get somewhere useless. Orsinov’s promised world sounds better and better by the day. That’s if she can actually achieve it. Everything will come down to a matter of careful planning and a single moment-

Forward thinking isn’t your strong point. Everything, for you, comes down to how you feel right then, right now - 

Right now you’re standing in front of an apartment building. A girl who looks nothing like Agnes is standing outside, fiddling with her phone. It’s been a long night for her. There are holes in her tights and her make-up is smeared. You feel a flicker, a spark - and then nothing. Once upon a time you’d have eaten this girl alive. 

There was a before Agnes, there was Agnes, and then there was after Agnes. The after Agnes will last the longest, and perhaps that’s the point. You live in the ashes of your own desire. The future is a wasteland empty of her.


End file.
